Is there negative marking in iSSO?

No. SilverZone states that all questions are objective-type with multiple-choice answers and that there is no negative marking, and that OMR answer sheets are provided for every class. Students keep the question paper; the answer sheet goes back to the foundation for evaluation. With 35 questions in 40 minutes, answer everything and leave nothing blank.

SilverZone Foundation · Social Science · Class 8

International Social Studies Olympiad (iSSO) Class 8: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)

Everything you need in one place — the exact NCERT chapters this paper tests, its published exam dates, the registration window, and the full marking scheme. Updated for the 2026–27 session.

Last verified against SilverZone Foundation's own site on 9 September 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 22 October 2026.

2026–27 exam dates

Date 1

29 September 2026

Date 2

28 October 2026

Date 3

1 December 2026

SilverZone publishes these under the heading "Tentative Examination Schedule for the year 2026-27" — they are the body's own dates, but SilverZone has not marked them final, so treat them as indicative until your school confirms. SilverZone scheduled the first date, 29 September 2026, earlier than any other SilverZone paper our subjects touch: 22 days before SilverZone's first English sitting (21 October 2026) and 9 days before its first maths sitting (8 October 2026).

SilverZone also lists an online-mode sitting of iSSO on 28 November 2026, under the same 31 October 2026 registration cutoff (moved from 30 September 2026). It was added to SilverZone's own exam-date data on 11 September 2026; the dates above are its offline sittings.

Registration: SilverZone publishes one registration cutoff covering every paper it runs, iSSO included: 31 October 2026, on the same schedule it heads "Tentative Examination Schedule." It was 30 September 2026 until SilverZone moved it: on 1 October 2026 the body's own exam-date endpoint still returned 30 September 2026 on all 34 of its records, and when we re-read it on 14 October 2026 every one returned 31 October 2026, with no notice of the change on the site. On this paper the cutoff falls after two of the three offline sittings: iSSO's first was 29 September 2026 and its second is 28 October, three days before the cutoff; the last is 1 December 2026. That is the second time this season SilverZone has replaced its cutoff only after the earlier date had gone by: the endpoint returned 31 August 2026 on every read from 18 August to 1 September 2026, and 30 September 2026 from 2 September. So treat 31 October as SilverZone's current date rather than a settled one, in either direction. If your school has not registered, ask your coordinator to confirm with SilverZone, at info@silverzone.org, which sitting of iSSO an entry made now would be for. Registration is through participating schools by default, so the cutoff binds the school rather than the family. "Social Studies (iSSO)" is a subject checkbox on SilverZone's school registration form. SilverZone also runs an individual registration form at r.silverzone.org; which papers it offers, and what closing date applies to it, we have not been able to confirm.

Free — deadline calendar

The deadline is set by your school, not by you

Most parents find the exam date and assume they have until then. The registration window closes long before it, and for some papers it has already started closing. Here is how it actually works.

Your school registers your child and your school picks which of the 2–3 dates the class sits. The family does not choose.
For SOF papers, registrations must reach SOF exactly 30 days before that chosen date — and once the school has chosen, the date cannot be changed.
Most bodies register through the school. These do not have to: CREST (online, no published cutoff), Unified Council — directly for NSTSE itself at ₹350 against ₹150 through a school, and on three online sittings, NSTSE-Online, UIMO-Online and UIEO-Online, at ₹354 each including GST — Indian Talent Olympiad on its individual online route (its own later dates — Slot 1 closes 30 October), and Humming Bird (online, ₹150 a subject, no published cutoff — its two dates are picked as you register). CREST is the simplest of them. SilverZone also runs an individual registration form alongside its default school route; which papers it offers we have not been able to confirm.

Closing next

SOF IHO (Hindi) — if your school picks 23 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 24 October 2026
SOF IMO (Maths) — if your school picks 26 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 27 October 2026
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — Individual online route — Slot 1
Registration closes 30 October 2026
SilverZone Foundation — Every SilverZone paper
Registration closes 31 October 2026
The body publishes this date but has not marked it final — confirm with your school before treating it as fixed.
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — School route — Set B (extended twice, from 10 October)
Registration closes 31 October 2026

Get the full calendar on WhatsApp

Or read the full calendar on the site — no sign-up

Every deadline in this box was re-read against the exam body's own website on or after 22 October 2026. Each table carries its own source link and its own date. Bodies do move dates, so check against the body's own site before you act on one.

Exam pattern

How the iSSO paper is structured

Section	Questions	Marks per question	Section total
Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People	6	2.5	15
Theme B — Tapestry of the Past	8	2.5	20
Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions	4	2.5	10
Theme D — Governance and Democracy	8	2.5	20
Theme E — Economic Life Around Us	4	2.5	10
Scholar's Zone	5	5	25
Total	35 questions	—	100 marks · 40 minutes

This is where the iSSO papers stop being one paper at three levels. At Classes 6 and 7 the five themes carry 15 marks each and nothing can be prioritised over anything else. At Class 8 that is gone: history and civics carry 20 marks each, culture and economics 10 each, and geography stays at 15. So a Class 8 child who splits revision evenly across the five themes is spending the same effort on a 10-mark section as on a 20-mark one. The second half of that is sharper still. Theme A is 6 questions — 15 marks, more than a seventh of the paper — and SilverZone names exactly one chapter under it, "Natural Resources and Their Use". Theme E is 4 questions on one chapter, "Factors of Production". Ten of the paper's 35 questions are drawn from two chapters of a fifteen-chapter book, which makes those two chapters worth knowing cold rather than reading once. The Scholar's Zone is unchanged at 5 questions and 25 marks with no topics published, and the clock is unchanged at 35 questions in 40 minutes, about 69 seconds a question. Two limits of what the body publishes, stated rather than filled in: iSSO runs for Classes 1 to 10 where its maths, science and English papers go to 12, and its iSSO pages carry no level structure at all, where the iOM, iOS and iOEL pages describe a Level 2 and iOEL a Level 3 — so nothing here says iSSO does or does not have one. Ask your coordinator.

Syllabus

Social Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 8, 2026-27)

Ch 1. Natural Resources and Their Use

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People. The only chapter SilverZone names under a 15-mark, 6-question theme

Ch 2. Reshaping India's Political Map

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past

Ch 3. The Rise of the Marathas

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past

Ch 4. The Colonial Era in India

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past (SilverZone writes it "The Colonial Era of India")

Ch 5. Universal Franchise and India's Electoral System

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme D — Governance and Democracy

Ch 6. The Parliamentary System: Legislature and Executive

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme D — Governance and Democracy

Ch 7. Factors of Production

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme E — Economic Life Around Us. The only chapter SilverZone names under this theme

Ch 8. World Geography: Some Glimpses

Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SilverZone's Class 8 iSSO list. Indian Talent Olympiad does carry world-regional geography at this class

Ch 9. India's Long Road to Independence

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past, read onto SilverZone's own umbrella entry "Indian National Movement (Freedom Fighters, Major Rebellions and Movements, Independence and Partition)" rather than named as a chapter

Ch 10. A Journey Through Indian Architecture

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions, read onto the umbrella entry "Indian Heritage and Culture (Literature, Dance, Music, Arts, Monuments, UNESCO Sites)" — Monuments and UNESCO Sites

Ch 11. The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society

Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SilverZone's Class 8 iSSO list, though its Theme D carries 20 marks. Indian Talent Olympiad lists the judiciary at this class

Ch 12. Citizenship: Rights and Duties

Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SilverZone's Class 8 iSSO list

Ch 13. Dynamics of Population

Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SilverZone's Class 8 iSSO list. Indian Talent Olympiad lists Population at this class

Ch 14. India's Urban Landscape

Olympiad syllabus label: Not named on SilverZone's Class 8 iSSO list

Ch 15. Cultural Currents: 13th to 17th Centuries

Olympiad syllabus label: Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions, read onto the umbrella entry "Indian Heritage and Culture" — Literature, Dance, Music and Arts

At Class 6 and Class 7, SilverZone's iSSO list is the child's book: fourteen chapters for fourteen, then twenty for twenty, under the book's own five themes. Class 8 is the class where that stops, and a parent who has used the Class 6 or Class 7 page should not carry the assumption across. SilverZone publishes nine entries for Class 8. Six are chapter titles of Exploring Society: India and Beyond verbatim; a seventh differs by one preposition. The remaining two are umbrellas SilverZone wrote itself — "Indian National Movement (Freedom Fighters, Major Rebellions and Movements, Independence and Partition)" and "Indian Heritage and Culture (Literature, Dance, Music, Arts, Monuments, UNESCO Sites)" — which read onto three more chapters between them. That leaves five chapters of the book that the list does not name at all: World Geography: Some Glimpses, The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society, Citizenship: Rights and Duties, Dynamics of Population, and India's Urban Landscape. Be careful how you use that. It is a fact about SilverZone's published list, not a promise by SilverZone that those chapters are off the paper: the Scholar's Zone is 25 marks with no topics published at any class, and a body that has not named a chapter has not excluded it. What it does mean is that the chapters the body did name are where the published weight sits, and two of them carry ten of the thirty-five questions on their own. Worth knowing if your child sits more than one social science paper: four of the five chapters SilverZone leaves unnamed are on Indian Talent Olympiad's own Class 8 list — world geography, the judiciary, citizenship and population — so the two papers are not interchangeable revision.

Try it yourself

Today's social science question

Practice

Practice in the iSSO format

No — OlympAI does not publish a practice paper for this exam. OlympAI’s question bank covers maths, science and English. We hold no social science questions yet, so there is no social science paper to give you — for this body or any other.

See what is on this paper

Frequently asked questions

SilverZone publishes one cutoff covering every paper it runs, not one per exam, and its school-route date is now 31 October 2026. It was 30 September 2026 until SilverZone moved it: the body's own exam-date endpoint still carried 30 September on 1 October, and returned 31 October 2026 on every record when we re-read it on 14 October. On iSSO it falls after two of the three offline sittings, 29 September and 28 October 2026; the last is 1 December 2026. SilverZone has now moved this cutoff twice without notice, from 31 August 2026 to 30 September and then to 31 October, each time only after the old date had gone by, so treat the current date as the body's, not as settled. If your school has not registered, ask SilverZone at info@silverzone.org which sitting an entry would be for. Registration is through the school by default; SilverZone also runs an individual registration form at r.silverzone.org whose paper list we have not been able to confirm.

Two of them carry ten of the thirty-five questions between them. SilverZone names exactly one chapter under Theme A, "Natural Resources and Their Use", and that theme is 6 questions and 15 marks; it names exactly one under Theme E, "Factors of Production", worth 4 questions and 10 marks. Theme B, the history section, is 8 questions and 20 marks across four entries, and Theme D, civics, is 8 questions and 20 marks across two. This is the first iSSO class where the themes are not weighted equally — at Class 6 and Class 7 every theme is worth 15.

Nothing SilverZone names sits outside the book. The question worth asking at Class 8 is the other way round: five chapters of the book are not named on SilverZone's list — World Geography: Some Glimpses, The Role of the Judiciary in Our Society, Citizenship: Rights and Duties, Dynamics of Population, and India's Urban Landscape. That is a fact about the published list, not a guarantee those chapters will not appear, and the Scholar's Zone is 25 marks for which the body publishes no topics at any class. Treat the named chapters as where the weight is, not as the whole of what a child might be asked.

They are different bodies running same-named papers on different clocks. SilverZone runs iSSO for Classes 1 to 10 on 29 September, 28 October and 1 December 2026, with a single registration cutoff covering every paper it runs — 31 October 2026, moved without notice from 30 September. SOF runs its own ISSO for Classes 3 to 10 on 30 November 2026 and 19 January 2027, and SOF has no fixed cutoff at all: its rule is that schools may send registrations by 30 days before the chosen date of each exam, so if your school picks 30 November, registrations reach SOF by 31 October. SOF also states that ISSO is a single-level exam, unlike its own maths, science and English papers. So a child can sit both, on two separate school registrations.

Possibly, and it is worth one question before you rule it out. SilverZone's main route is the school, but it also runs a public individual registration form at r.silverzone.org, which its own page labels "for individual registrations only. This is not a school registration link." Which papers that form offers, we have not been able to confirm, so ask SilverZone whether it covers iSSO before relying on it. If your school does not run it, four other bodies take a family directly: CREST, Unified Council for its online sittings, Indian Talent Olympiad on its individual online route, and Humming Bird. For this subject exactly one of the four is any use, and it is a real door rather than a technicality: Indian Talent Olympiad's individual online route runs NSSO, the National Social Studies Olympiad, for Classes 1 to 10 — slot 1 on 7 December 2026, slot 2 on 5 January 2027, with individual registration closing 30 October 2026. CREST, Unified Council and Humming Bird publish no social science paper at any class. So a family whose school skips iSSO is not out of options for this subject; they are down to one.

Still choosing

Every olympiad a Class 8 child can sit in 2026–27

All the papers at this class, grouped by whether your school has to enter your child or you can register directly — with each body's own dates and cutoffs.

Related guides

Other olympiad syllabus guides

SilverZone Foundation · Class 6

iSSO Class 6 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern

SilverZone Foundation · Class 7

iSSO Class 7 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern

Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 8

IEO Class 8 — english syllabus, dates and pattern

Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 8

IHO Class 8 — hindi syllabus, dates and pattern

Keep reading

Guides that answer the next question

SOF and SilverZone registration last dates 2026-27, explained for parents

Four school-route registration dates fell between 23 and 30 September 2026: if your school picked those sittings, SOF’s 30-day rule gave 23 September for a 23 October IMO, 27 September for a 27 October IEO and 30 September for a 30 October ISO, and SilverZone published 30 September 2026 for every paper — a date it has since moved to 31 October 2026. None of them is a form a parent fills in. Here is what each date means, what to ask the school, and where to go if the school is not entering your child.

SOF ISSO vs SilverZone iSSO: which social science olympiad

Two papers with almost the same name, built on opposite principles: SilverZone iSSO spreads its marks evenly across the five themes of your child’s book, SOF ISSO puts 45 of its 50 questions in one undifferentiated section and draws 30 per cent of them from last year. Their calendars barely overlap, and a third body takes a family without the school. Here is the side-by-side for Classes 6, 7 and 8, read off each body’s own surface on 29 September 2026.

Or see every 2026-27 exam date and registration cutoff in one table, or browse all the papers we cover.

Practice these exact chapters, free

Free forever: 3 practice quizzes a day in each subject, 10 olympiad-pattern questions each, and 5 with your choice of length and difficulty on OlympAI PRO — for Class 8 social science, generated from the same NCERT chapters above and written to the shape of the real olympiad papers, then automatically checked before they can be served.

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